Bill continues training at Camp Van Dorn where the daytime temperatures are often 100 degrees or higher. It is also the rainy season. Van Dorn gets about 65 inches of rain a year. Bill buys life insurance with his mom & dad as beneficiaries at a cost of $6.50 per month and a death benefit of $10,000.
Hunting for berries was a routine task for the Banis children. As Victor Banis recalls:
“Blackberry memories – pies and jams and cakes and – perhaps best of all – just eating them fresh off the bush. All of which, of course, supposes that first one has found them. Today, anyone can find them in season, in just about any supermarket. To the little Banises, finding them meant going out berrying.
“Berrying happened in the late summer, maybe August. The little jewels thrive on heat, it seems. And as I’ve gotten older, I’ve learned that the berry patches commonly attract snakes, sometimes the deadly kind. If they did then, I must have missed them, though I suspect Mom kept her eyes open.
“We set out, Mom and the little Banises – that would be Pat, when he was old enough to toddle along, myself, somewhere around ten or twelve, and Annie, two years older than me. And I’m sure that sometimes Sam, a year older than Annie, was there, too.
“How we found the patches, I have no idea. Sometimes the bushes just grew alongside the road, but they were mostly in the woods. Someone’s property, that is to say, but people were more sharing in those days – This was not so very long after The Great Depression, and everyone, it seemed, was poor. So we ignored trespassing warnings, and climbed fences that today I’d hesitate to clamber over, carrying our pails, and baskets. A motley little band of urchins, we searched the woods until we found a patch of blackberry bushes, the branches hanging low with the weight of their treasures. The bushes are prickly, the sun was hot. We might spend a couple of hours, picking, eating, and filling our containers. Often, when we’d picked a good mess of fruit, Mom would lead us, tired and sweaty and sometimes bleeding from thorns, to the door of a farmhouse and swap berries (their own, but we had done the work for them) for some cold water or, occasionally, even some fresh milk. People were less frightened of one another then. Imagine a woman with a band of children coming to a farmhouse kitchen door today. I doubt that milk is what we’d get.
“It is a rigorous way to spend a day, but we all of us looked forward to the fruits (pardon the pun) of our labors.”
On the Home Front:
- The United States Women’s Army Corps (WAC) converts to full status, changing its name from the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps.
- A single-family trailer arrives in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, marking the first residents of the town constructed for workers on the new, secret atomic bomb project. Within two years it has 75,000 people in the 92 square mile area.
- The United States Congress recesses for the first time in four years, after the nation’s legislators had not taken vacation since 1939.
- American-born poet Ezra Pound is indicted for treason for making radio broadcasts from Italy for the Axis powers.
On the War Front:
- Walter Dornberger briefs Hitler on the V-2 rocket; he approves the project for top priority.
- Operation Husky (the Allied invasion of Sicily) begins. U.S. forces under Patton capture Palermo, Sicily.
- The Allies bomb Rome for the first time.
- Mussolini is arrested and relieved of his offices.
- Hamburg, Germany, is heavily bombed in Operation Gomorrah, which at the time is the heaviest assault in the history of aviation.
July 12, 1943 — Camp Van Dorn, MS
Dear Mom:
I received your letter this evening and was very glad to hear from you. And thanks a million for the cash Mom. I’ve certainly got lots of uses for it. But if you had need of it you shouldn’t have sent it because I know how much you need it. That’s why you should send it. Besides you know me mom When I can’t find the solution to a problem I make one. And I’ll get along OK. I think everything will turn out fine, as for me getting married, well you keep an eye on this Irishman. And see what the results are. By the time I go on maneuvers this fall I’ll have my Diamond paid for. Well so Maisie has ideas about matrimony has she. Maybe she’ll settle down yet, But just between you and me I don’t think May is serious yet.
So Abe doesn’t like his present location does he. Its tough. OK but as you say it’s all in the game. And this place isn’t any bed of roses either. And say what’s this you tell me about losing the allotment. Let’s forget that sort of stuff. And I don’t think you’ll have to worry about a job. If we could first get enough together on that farm it would keep Paw busy. Don’t you think so. Oh! Yes. I received a box of cookies from Velma today. They were sure swell. So Dick’s got something to take up his time has he. See that he keeps busy. And by the way first set a plate of that chicken & pot pie out for me. Will you please. Thanks I knew you would. It sure has been a long time since I’ve had any. And home churned butter Boy! Oh! Boy!
Well please say hello to everyone for me Mom. And don’t you worry about the insurance because it may come in handy someday. Please excuse this hurried writing because these damn alerts are a nuisance.
Bye or now
Lots of Love
Bill
July 24, 1943 — Camp Van Dorn, MS
Dear Mom:
And everyone. I was very glad to get your letter and believe it or not I’m lucky enough to have time to ans. it. Gee time is sure hard to find around here anymore. Well so everyone is still able to fight at home are they. Good then I don’t need to ask you if they are well. Say speaking of rain I sure wish it would rain here every day because this heat is terrific and I don’t mean maybe.
Well I’ll be moving soon so you can be prepared to get a package any day.
Gee! The way you talk there sure must be some berries up there this year. Save a can or two for me and I’ll come home some day to take care of them (I hope)
Well I got a letter from May this week and she tells me she’s getting married soon. I suppose you know that already. It certainly was a surprise to me.
So Abe is conceited is he. You aren’t telling me anything. I just wish he could get a sample of this place. I saw a piece in the paper today that said the camps down here were getting the roughest training [in] the Army. And I believe them. We’re plenty good Mom, and if they find any outfits that are tougher than [us] I’d like to see them.
Gee, talk about swell would I love to taste some good old cooked chicken. Boy if you send that I’ll sure be a conceited soldier around this place and how. You’re a darling mom.
Now it’s getting close to falling out time. So give my love to Dad and all the kids.
Best of Luck
And Lots of Love
Bill
ww2letterproject 
This is now getting fun looking at all the replies from everyone. All the people that I’ve known or known of —through my life that are able to share all of this. It’s like a great big reunion—-in space! Grandma would be amazed and very pleased that so many are taking part. Good job Steve and Rebecca!
Emily
LikeLike
Grandma Banis was a small bundle of protective love that was still glowing through her final years at my parents house. She would sit on my parents porch and watch my girls play and keep a sharp eye out for them. She could still make a mean apple pie from memory and I ate as much as I could.
LikeLike
My dad says he has letters from his dad, Abe or Al as we knew him to Velma. If you’re interested in getting copies, let me know and I will try to make arrangements.
LikeLike
I love reading these letters! Thanks for sharing them this way.
The picture labeled “Abe” looks like my grandfather, Albert (“Al”) Banis, Bill’s younger brother.
Looking forward to the next installment!
Regina
LikeLike
Hi, Regina! Rebecca, here. As a matter of fact, “Abe” is your grandfather Albert! Abe is another nickname, and is what Bill calls him most of the time. Glad to hear you’re enjoying the letters. Thanks for reading!
LikeLike
Yes, Abe is Albert. Abe was the name Bill used to refer to his brother. BTW. I could use some additional pictures of Abe in uniform. I will use them in future postings.
LikeLike
They called your grandpa Abe when he was a youngster and Al as he got older but he was probably always Abe to his family. He did tell me that when they had moved back to Pa and would go berry picking that Grandpa Banis would tell them to not come back down till their buckets were full. Grandpa Banis always ate his dessert first at meal time is what I was told and probably had a lot to do with his diabetes.
LikeLike
Great series – he sure loved his Mom, didn’t he? It shines right through his letters (and I think it was mutual, too)
LikeLike